Broadus was ordained in 1850 and became pastor of the Baptist church in Charlottesville. In 1859, Broadus along with James P. Boyce, Basil Manly Jr., and William Williams, founded the
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. Broadus became professor of
New Testament interpretation and homiletics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. With Manley, Broadus was also one of the first leaders of the
Sunday School Board publishing operations. During the
American Civil War, he served as a Confederate chaplain to
Robert E. Lee's army in Northern Virginia. He delivered a lecture at the University of Virginia in memorial to Professor
Gessner Harrison in 1873. In 2018 the President of the Seminary commissioned a "Report on slavery and racism within the history of the Southern Baptist Seminary" which found that Broadus and its principal founders combined owned 50 slaves, After the war ended and public sentiment began to shift, Broadus 'repudiated' American slavery in 1882. ==Personal life==